Bartonville police searching for suspect in road rage beating

BARTONVILLE — Police said they are looking for a man who beat up a 53-year-old Bartonville man Tuesday in a fit of road rage.

A 49-year-old Pekin man was driving at the intersection of Second Street and Illinois Route 9 in Pekin about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when a white van cut him off, according to a police report. He told police he honked his horn at the van’s driver in response to his maneuver.

When the Pekin man arrived about 15 minutes later at his brother’s home in Bartonville, he saw the white van in the 7700 block of South Jefferson Street. The van then raced down the street toward the residence, and the driver got out. When the Bartonville man told the van’s driver he could not enter on his property, he shoved him over, dragged him about 20 feet and threw him to the ground, hitting his head on concrete, according to the report. He then fled south on U.S. Route 24 in the white van.

The injured man was taken to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria with a contusion and abrasion to his forehead, a strained right shoulder and a right knee abrasion. His brother described the assailant as in his 30s with a stocky build, black hair and a goatee, according to the report.

Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call the Bartonville Police Department at 697-2323 or CrimeStoppers.